“A Royal Marine has been found guilty of murder following the killing in cold blood of a badly wounded suspected insurgent in Afghanistan. A court martial board in Bulford, Wiltshire, acquitted two other marines of the murder of the Afghan national in Helmand province in September 2011.”

“A nurse who worked at Stafford Hospital has been given a five year caution after she was found guilty of putting patients in danger, angering families who want ‘someone held responsible’ for the scandal.”

“CF v Security Service and others and Mohamed v Foreign and Commonwealth Office and others [[2013] EWHC 3402 (QB). The High Court has today made the first court ruling on the use of the Justice and Security Act 2013 in a civil claim for damages.”

“The Government is right to consider a review of the civil and criminal laws surrounding so-called ‘leverage campaigns’, with a view towards making it harder for trade unions to engage in ‘industrial intimidation’ during labour disputes, an expert has announced.”

“Niqab-wearing defendants should be obliged to remove their veils before giving evidence say 90% of my colleagues in a poll conducted by the Bar Council for The Times (although personally I’d like to see what the participation rate was for that). Former justice secretary, Ken Clarke, agrees, likening wearing a full-face veil in the witness box to giving evidence ‘in a bag’. The Lord Chief Justice says that trial judges should be able to decide whether a defendant may give evidence wearing a face-veil or not, but promises to provide guidance.”

“Where the chairman of a creditors’ meeting summoned under section 257 of the Insolvency Act 1986 had reported the meeting’s approval of a proposed voluntary arrangement to the court, the only route of challenge was under section 262 of the 1986 Act. That was so even if the meeting itself had not approved the arrangement, because the chairman had exceeded the terms of proxies that he held so there had in fact not been a 75% majority in favour of approval.”

“The ‘benefit cap’ set in the Benefit Cap (Housing Benefit) Regulations 2012, amending the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, did not unjustifiably discriminate against women and large families contrary to article 14 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.”

“Article 4(1) of Council Directive 87/344 on legal expenses insurance precluded a legal expenses insurer, which stipulated in its insurance contracts that legal assistance would in principle be provided in-house, from also providing that the costs of legal assistance provided by a legal representative chosen by the insured would be covered only if the insurer took the view that the handling of the case had to be subcontracted to an external lawyer.”

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